How can 3 minutes of crochet ease anxiety?

Hayley shares her personal stories of feeling shy, socially anxious, ‘not good enough’ and fearfully avoiding the good things in life. Growing her confidence through coaching, gradually stretching her comfort zone and connecting with others, she now uses everything she has learned to help other people grow their confidence in her role as a coach. Hayley is passionate about connecting people with similar stories and creating safe, supportive spaces to make friends and try new things. Hayley dreams of a time when all of the strengths, skills and goodness in ‘quiet’ is recognised and appreciated as readily as being bold, gregarious, and comfortable in the spotlight is right now.

We all get anxious at times, it’s completely natural, and can even serve us well in small controlled spells. But if anxiety is something that you feel like you struggle with on a regular basis; finding ways in which to manage it can really help to ease the feeling of it being constantly overwhelming, overbearing and like it’s in control of you, rather than you in control of it!

I think we all know by now that crochet is my go to activity for healthily maintaining all aspects of my mental wellbeing, and I love, love, love hearing that many of you also feel the same. However, anxiety can come on unexpectedly and in places where it’s not always easy or time-appropriate to get out a large project to work through it…

That’s why I love making these little flowers! They take approximately 3 minutes to make, and only require a very small amount of yarn, which means you can easily pop them into your bag wherever you may be going, and have the time to make one wherever you may be – whether that’s at work, commuting on a train or bus, or even in a toilet cubicle at an event!

How Do They Help?

Crochet has a naturally calming effect

These flowers are made using a repetitive pattern to form the petals. Engaging in a repetitive activity provides a distraction for the mind by focusing on the actions of your hands, without needing to really think about what you are doing. This alone can help release physical tension and reduce feelings of anxiety.

Focus on your breathing

It helps to work out a pattern to match your breathing to your crochet. This may mean deeply inhaling and exhaling to each stitch or petal, depending on your crochet speed. Doing this will help to slow down any shallow breathing and increased heart beat, to return back to normal and leave you feeling more in control and calm.

Take each minute at a time

Anxiety can cause us to feel incredibly overwhelmed and out of control, and as a result time can feel warped and so can the situation. Crocheting these flowers can help bring some awareness back, refocus your mind and gain some clarity again. For the few minutes that it takes to make one, remember we only ever need to take each minute as it comes. You have got through so many already…you can get through the next!

Let’s not forget that they’re super cute and can be made up using lots of different yarns and colours. Once you have enough you can even stitch them together to make cute tops, headbands, cushions, garlands, glue them onto bobby pins, or applique onto denim jackets, jeans, or whatever else you fancy! The possibilities are endless really.